One little word...Kindness

My One Little Word for 2016 is Kindness.  I'm sharing a beautiful message from Brave Girls Club  Be blessed.

 

Your daily truth from the Brave Girls Club

Dear Loving Girl, Do you know how much power you have in the touch of your hand? in the look in your eyes? in the sound of your voice? One very Brave Girl by the name of Mother Teresa once said: “Let no one ever come to you without leaving better and happier. Be the living expression of God’s kindness: kindness in your face, kindness in your eyes, kindness in your smile.”   You have the power to spread much that is gentle and loving and joyful in this harsh world. And you’ll find that perhaps the most magical part of those powers is that you can’t help but feel more joy in your OWN life as you do so. So today, choose to use your power only for good…use it to express your deepest feelings of love, affection, respect, awe, and gratitude for those you love. Be oh-so-careful never to use your power to hurt or offend. You are so loved and so very important to the people in your life. xoxo

Girl stuff

Mom and her daughters, Aunty and her nieces, two sisters, Nanna and her granddaughters...just a whole lot of silliness on a Sunday morning in February

Wet wet wet

Do you remember running through the spray as a child?  Such a simple thing that brings so much joy to the little people.

I love these kids! xxx

Hello muscles

After not exercising for 7 months (because of my foot surgery), I got the green light from my foot physiotherapist to slowly start exercising again on 1 February.  Walking has always been my exercise of choice, so that's where I'm starting.  I'm only supposed to actively walk for 20 minutes once a week for 6 weeks, and then increase it to twice a week for the next 6 weeks, and so on. 

 

What is working for me is being generally more active.  My job is quite sedentary, sitting in front of a computer for long periods of time during the week.  So I get up and walk to the copy machine often during the day, I take the longer route to the loo, I do some slow mall walking during the week.  I'm moving again...

 

I bought a little Fitbit Zip which I'm loving, I didn't want the big chunky (ugly!) Fitbit bangle.  I clip the Fitbit Zip to my bra under my clothes and off I go; it tracks my steps, mileage, and calories burned each day.  I also add how much water I drink.  I sync it at night to my iPhone and I can see how I'm doing on a daily, weekly and monthly basis.  As my foot gets better, I'll increase my daily walking distance. 

 

Having the Fitbit Zip also helps when my foot gets sore; I check back and see what distance I walked over the past 2 days or so, and I've usually overdone the exercise, so I know that I need to slow down a bit. 
 

 

 

I've also added a 7-minute workout to my walking routine.  This is a free app which I downloaded to my iPhone.  I've lost a huge amount of functional fitness over the past 7 months, so just 7 minutes of exercise was exhausting for me when I started on 1 February.  7 minutes of jumping jacks, sit ups, lunges, plank, pushups, step-ups, squats, side plank...oh my gosh, it kicked my butt!!   Slowly slowly...making progress.

 

 

This is awesome (simple) technology, I love it!

Crocheted shawl

More than a year ago, I started crocheting a shawl in Vinnis cotton; read about it here.  100 squares later, I've finally finished it!  Crocheting with cotton is difficult and slow-going - the cotton 'splits' and you don't get very far working with such thin thread.

It's really pretty but I don't love it.  I've learnt that I don't like having to constantly adjust and fix my clothing during the day...endlessly tugging and straightening things.  Shawls fall off my shoulders, so I regularly have to straighten them.  Nah, not for me.  I'll wear it when I'm doing a lot of sitting still, like at Bible Study or at work. 

 

Next project - a poncho for winter...hopefully no tugging or straightening required!
 

Saying yes

One of my 2016 goals is to say YES more often.  During 2015, I was finding all sorts of rubbish reasons to not do things.  I missed the Titanic exhibition in Johannesburg because I was busy and the location was inconvenient for me.  I missed seeing Engelbert Humperdink live in concert because the show was on a week night and I had early meetings the next morning.  What rubbish!  I frustrate myself sometimes.  So I'm working on saying YES more often...

 

The first big YES of the year was my solitary trip to Black Rhino Lodge in January.  My second big YES was to see Madame Zingara.  The show closes in Johannesburg at the end of January, so Leonie and I made a spur of the moment decision to book and go to the show at Montecasino.  It was a great show, the food was delicious, the service a bit crappy, and I enjoyed getting a bit dressed up and spending time out with Leonie.

His name is Cathy

PS : I've booked to see the Titanic Exhibition in Cape Town during February -YES!

Wild things

Here are some photos of the birds and animals that I saw on my recent bush break to Black Rhino Game Lodge...

 

Woodland Kingfisher

Steenbok

Buffalo

Rhino

Lazy lions 

Zebra 

Arrowmarked babbler 

Giraffe (lying down) 

our guide Johan shows us a Terrapin

Yellowbilled Hornbill 

Blackback Jackal 

Everyone on our game drive vehicle was a keen birdwatcher.  The couple on the left (Rosemary and Roger) are from the UK, the lady next to me (Nora) is a political analyst with the US Embassy in Pretoria, and Brian and Dell are from Australia.  I had a lovely birthday.